Air India to launch non-stop flight to San Francisco

New Delhi: Air India today announced the launch of a non-stop flight to San Francisco from December 2, fulfilling a long-pending demand of Indian IT professionals on a day Prime Minister Narendra Modi is visiting the Silicon Valley.

"We are launching a direct non-stop flight to the San Francisco on December 2 as there was a demand for it," Air India CMD Ashwani Lohani announced at an event to celebrate the World Tourism Day here.

San Francisco will be the national carrier's fourth destination in the United States after New York, Newark and Chicago where it operates daily non-stop flights.

The Boeing 777-200 LR (Long Range) flight, to be operated on Wednesdays, Fridays and Sundays, will have a convenient early morning departure and arrival. Similarly, the return flight would depart early morning departure from San Francisco and arrive here in the afternoon.

Air India officials said the flight will be a boon to the Indian diaspora on the US West Coast as it will make travel easy and convenient for students, NRIs and business travellers looking for direct options to connect with India.

The new flight would connect passengers from Indian cities of Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, Kochi, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Pune and Bhubaneswar.

Referring to Air India's Discover India scheme, Lohani also said there was a deep connect between tourism and civil aviation sectors and the airline was in discussion with Tourism Ministry to launching various schemes in this regard.